Hofstadter, Dennett - The Mind's I

The Riddle on the Universe and its Solution17CHRISTOPHER CHERNIAKThe Riddleof the Universeand Its SolutionWe have prepared this report to provide fuller information in connection with thePresident's recent press conference on the so-called "Riddle.' We hope the report helps todispel the ugly mood apparent throughout the country, bordering on panic, which hasmost recently found expression in irresponsible demands to close the universities. Ourreport ha been prepared in haste; in addition, our work was tragically disrupted, adescribed later.We first review the less well known early history of the Riddle. The earliestknown case is that of C. Dizzard, a research fellow with the Autotomy Group at M.I.U.Dizzard had previously worked for severs small firms specializing in the development ofartificial intelligence sof ware for commercial applications. Dizzard's current projectinvolved ti use of computers in theorem proving, on the model of the proof in the 1970sof the four-color theorem. The state of Dizzard's project is know only from a year-oldprogress report; however, these are often intended at most for external use. We shall notdiscuss the area of Dizzard's work further. The reason for our reticence will be apparentshortly.Copyright © 1978 by Christopher Cherniak.